A Captain's Prestige
by Flamingo917
Summary: Oliver can only hold so much in, and he is still a normal guy.


_Another Feeling of Color challenge. :D_

_Gold- Prestige; authority, dignity, status, control, power_

**_A Captain's Prestige_**

Oliver Wood had prestige. He was the Gyriffindor Quidditch Team captain in his seventh year. He had authority. He had his status, his power, and his dignity. But like all others, he had his flaw.

Ah… Girls.

It wasn't like he was totally shy with girls. He felt comfortable with them. He had close friends who were girls, and they liked him back. Some even kind of liked him in THAT way. But he just didn't return the feeling, so he turned them down.

Except for one.

She had always been pretty, he guessed, it just took time for him to notice it. She had always been his type. It just took time to get to know her.

There were just two little problems holding him back ~ She was three years younger than him and one of his chasers on his team of red and gold. Her name was Katie Bell.

His friends always teased him on this subject, but not in the way you think. They were always trying to get him to see she had a crush on _him_.

"Look, Oliver, there's your admirer!" They would say if she approached him in the corridors between classes.

"Guys, she just wants to talk Quidditch," or "She probably just forgot when the practice is today, she always forgets," would be his lame and stupid retorts as he went to go talk to her on the side.

"Do your friends not like me or something?" She had once asked him, noticing their mutterings as she came near.

"No, it's not that," He had reassured her. "They just don't get how much Quidditch means to me," He didn't want her to know what they really thought.

"Oh well, we all know that on the team," She had laughed. God, how he loved her laugh. It was better then his favorite Weird Sisters song, or the sound of the rain on the lake. It was just… brilliant. "How many times has it been now that you've woken us all up at dawn, just to talk tactics and lecture us?"

"I-"

"Oh, and THEN you expect us all to remember what the bloody hell you were talking about, as if-"

"Wait," He had processed slowly. "You guys DON'T RETAIN IT?!"

She had rolled her eyes at him. "It was six in the _morning_, Oliver!"

He had then muttered something along the lines of, "Well, I'm still your Captain!" and there was his prestige again. It came back wherever he went.

"Doesn't make us more awake, _Captain_. Fred and George have tried to explain that. Have you gotten it? No,"

Oliver had stuttered.

"Well, I've got to go unless I want Professor Snape giving me a weeks worth of detention sorting dead spiders and leeches… especially if it meant getting me out of this weekend's game. See ya, Oliver,"

He had just stood there, watching her walk away for what felt like forever. But it was only fifteen seconds till her head disappeared in the crowd. And yet he was sure he could see her golden hair in the crowd, as if he could feel her floating away from him…

So he dated girls here and there, whom he didn't care for much. He did it to keep his friends off his back. He did it to keep his feelings at bay for her, and to hide them from her. She herself dated guys. She could be a flirt sometimes, and that made him wonder if she even liked him at all.

Once, Oliver had walked into a deserted corridor to find her snogging one of her new boyfriends. She didn't see him and he was glad of that fact because he was sure his blue eyes had suddenly turned green with envy, wanting to be that lucky guy. He was glued to the spot, trying not to lose his control, and decide if he should shout, to break them up. To show her that he should be the one to be kissing and not that kid.

In the end, he just ran away to the Quidditch field, where he sat alone in the mocking sunshine.

And thus, Oliver Wood, The Gyriffindor Quidditch Captain in his seventh year at Hogwarts Witchcraft and Wizardry, kept his prestige; his authority, his status, his placement of rank among his peers, and to his best power, his control. But one question always burned inside of him,

"_Was it worth it?__"_

_I'm not that satisfied with the ending, so review to help me make it better? _

_Thanks for reading!_

_~Meg_

_P.S. __Special Thanks__ to mfinga19, who is always the first to read and is my amazing editor. Love ya!_


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